Keep the Faith

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. (James 2:17 KJV)

Here we are in another new start, in a brand new month. We have a new set of days, God willing, to welcome and embrace. Summer season is just ahead with its promises of fun and excitement.

But with all that we often have to look forward to, we can’t help but see what’s going on in the world. Images of violence, poverty, destruction, and death fill our news feeds seemingly 24/7. It’s hard to focus on fun and the good things of summer when there’s so much suffering.

I shared in a guest blog last week (read the full entry here) an experience in which I came face to face with, well, life. My husband and I saw a man digging through a trash can searching for food. Yes, we helped him, but it was just a shock to me to actually see that. I hadn’t before. The meaning of grateful? Oh yeh, it changed for me that day.

Despite what I saw, and despite what we continue to see on the news and even in our own communities, we must keep the faith. We must believe God, walk by faith and not by sight, and know He’s in control. But there’s another part to it: not only must we have faith, but we must act on it. And I will add, as the Lord directs. I don’t think it’s possible to claim to be a person of faith and not practice it. Faith without action, states the Word, is dead. It has no worth. It does not prosper.

So, we put faith into action by giving, helping, sowing, encouraging, becoming, loving. I have a saying: you can’t have and then not give. It’s easy to get caught up in our own little worlds and the things that make us happy, like summer fun I mentioned above, and things, and stuff. But there’s a need you’ve been called to fill. When God brings you to it, act. When God brings you to it, not you trying to show everybody just how full of goodness you are. But that’s another post…

It didn’t take long for my husband and me to feel that stirring within us to help the man searching for food. We didn’t need to boast about it, we just did what needed to be done. Think of what this world would be like, how we’d all be changed, if we let our faith live and not die.